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My secondary vinyl + headphone system has been providing great synergy for the past several years.
Technics SL1210 MK2 (carbon fiber mat and heat shrink on arm)
Denon Dl-110 cartridge
Cambridge Audio Azur 640p phono
Blue Jeans LC-1 interconnect
Little Dot MKIII with Amperex Bugle Boy tubes
Sennheiser HD 580's with 650 cable
However, I suspected there was a bottleneck with the phono preamp. I did some reading on what would be a good upgrade for not a lot of money. I considered the Jolida JD9, Musical Surroundings Phenomena, Ray Samuels Nighthawk, Yaqin MS-23b, Vincent PHO-8, and the iFi iPhono. I also considered having the 640p modified but read mixed reviews on that. It seemed the mods could improve it but it would still not be as good as some of the phono pre's that I was considering. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't just limited to MM and HOMC cartridges and that I could use LOMC cartridges with the phono pre. I read countless reviews on these phono pre's and narrowed it down to the Phonomena and iPhono. Both seemed well reviewed with a lot of great things said about them. I decided to go with the iPhono since it was considerably less but in some reviews rated as well as or better than the Phonomena.
The iPhono is considerably smaller and lighter than the outgoing 640p. I dialed in the settings for the DL-110 cartidge and hooked up the unit. Right away, I could tell it was better than the 640p. However, this was right out of the box so wanted to wait a bit before doing any critical listening. After several days of being powered on and having had at least 10 hours of play-through, I gave it a close listen.
All the reviews I read about the iphono praised it for being a quiet phono stage. My experience was no different. The 640p was pretty quiet but the iphono is even better. The sound with the iphono is also more open and airy with greater detail. The soundstage seemed to expand a bit with the iphono. Also, the 640p has a hardness to the sound which is now completely gone with the iphono. The Dl-110 sounds better than ever through the iphono! I wonder if there is any more break in time required on the iphono?
Next, I plan to add a new cartridge into the mix. I'm considering the Denon Dl-301 MK2, Denon Dl-103r, and Dynavector 10x5. Any suggestions on which one would be the best match to my system? Are there any others I should consider?
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Main system- Rotel RCD950, Rotel RC1070, Rotel RB981, Magnepan 10QR, Martin Logan Dynamo sub
Headphone system- Little Dot MKIII, Sennhesier HD 580,
Cambridge Audio 640P phono, Technics SL1210 MK2, Denon DL160
Follow Ups:
my real phono pre from Win Research is kinda on the fritz and cannot seem to get Sao Wins attention to get it fixed, Well he is quite old, and he probably will take the secrets to his grave. He is using some odd op amp in his design where he sanded off the markings :)....clever he is. other than that the circuit looks pretty simple and straight forward. My preamp oscillates in a strange way. but enough about the broken pre. The iPhono is not bad, a tad more grainy a tad more closed and a tad less dynamic than the Sao Win design, but it works and supported. I am using it with a Win SMC-10 cartridge most of the time, that thing retails for $2500 and the iPhono is not a bit bothered by being pushed by a cartridge five times its price. Sure a little bit more finesse would be nice, but for that money one should just shut up and listen to music. I also use the iPhono with a London Decca Gold. a Shure V15-iV, a V15-III and an Empire mc1000. They all sound pretty good and none of them have interface issues because the unit offers so many options. I never used the eq functions. i am of the opinion that none of that is a real benefit....others may disagree.
dee
;-D
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.
quote by Kurt Vonnegut
I made the same transition from a 640p to the iFi Phono a couple of years back, and suddenly all my albums needed to listened to afresh because of the huge improvement on all parameters of sound quality, not to mention the convenience of multiple loading options, adjustable gain and EQ curves. I've two TTs, one with a V15VxMR, and the other with a AT33EV (with a back up Benz Micro ACE), and all three cartridges sound superb. Your choice could be based on various factors of price, availability, voicing, output level, etc, but I don't think that the iFi is more favourable to any one brand or another. It sounds great no matter what cartridge is thrown at it.
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